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While traveling last weekend, I had occasion to visit Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum. Lovely little museum in a big old house. A snazzy contemporary yarn installation in the rotunda by HOT TEA led to this great picture by my friend Gretchen:

As I posted on Instagram, it’s always worthwhile to go to a new art museum anyplace you are. Whether you’re visiting a cultural hub like New York or DC (or Paris or Rome) or are in a smaller place, you will learn quite a few new things. I was reminded by the one John Singer Sargent painting in the museum that he really had the goods: Continue reading →

My son and I once checked a book out from the library, “Matisse, King of Color” by Laurence Anholt. We both loved it instantly – though of course I had guided the selection among a few artists in the series, Matisse is a favorite of mine. It tells the back story of how Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence came to be, with beautiful illustrations inspired by the artist. (Now that I’ve most of the rest of the series, it still holds up as one of the best.) After checking it out a few times, I suggested to grandma that it would be a good Christmas present.

Last night as we read the story for the Nhundredth time, it occurred to me that we could take Cash to that place, so he knows that it’s a real story. Continue reading →

I had over 100 FB friends marching in 30+ cities around the USA in 22 states on Friday and Saturday.

In Austin, the crowd was about 50,000, quite likely the biggest-ever gathering at the Texas capital. (Second to about 25K at a UT anti-Vietnam war protest 40 years prior.) My mom said the Fort Worth rally was 6000+ after only being announced on Monday and with options all around, Denton, Dallas, etc.

It is so, so cool to hear all these huge numbers, and to have been there. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving: Louisiana with my mom’s side of the family. Way fun, would do again. We love VRBO for these kinds of gatherings, more flexible and kitchen-y.

Spent a day in New Orleans, had a great meal and went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. After ending up at the Contemporary Art Center 4 hours too early for that day’s showing of Christian Marclay’s THE CLOCK. Maaaajor disappointment for me, as I’d missed it twice in NYC.

So I’ve been doing a ton of reading and sort of trying not to think that much these days. Christmas in Arlington, visiting with cousin & fam in town from North Carolina, then a VERY chill New Year’s Eve in Waco.

UUWF is a partner of the Women’s March on Washington! Affiliated Minister Marti Keller will be there, and I’m planning to be in Austin for the Texas state capitol sister march. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a protest and I’m pretty excited.

Coming up in the Waco art scene:
Joel Edwards show opens at Art Center Waco on Thursday, Jan. 19. Can’t wait, he is a very talented artist and a super nice guy.Deep in the Heart Film Festival in February – which I will unfortunately miss because it’s the same weekend as the Convocation.
Top Young Artist exhibitions from March 1-18 at Studio Gallery, then at The Art Center from March 23 (Award Ceremony & Opening Reception that evening) to April 15. And last but certainly not least, is Art on Elm on Saturday April 8! We’re switching websites for simplicity – now at artonelm.org. Here’s a little history of the event that I wrote, and I want to dig more into the history of the area for another post.

On a Thursday in November, I got picked up at home very early in the morning by my colleague in an unusually low-key car for her. We were on our way to a Texas Public Art Administrators meeting in San Antonio. It was so good to meet people in a specific realm of the arts, and they came from a variety of places and agencies: San Antonio Public Art of course, but also Love Field (an airport), Houston Airports, San Antonio River Authority, etc. Most are city-funded, others included a library with a public art program and no dedicated staff. It was two days after the election and we were all able to tell each other about our local places and not worry about national affairs for the day.

After lunch we met up at a newly re-done park called Yanaguana Garden, which was spectacular. The play structures were huge and wonderful, like nothing I’d ever seen, and there was art all over. We learned that in addition to the large, stunning mosaic sculptures by Oscar Alvarado, were 6 more artworks from the public art exhibition “Play” at Hemisfair, brought together by lead artist Stuart Allen, who led a tour of the park to talk about working with the city and the artists to make ideas reality.

This summer I joined the board of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation as the new Vice President of Funding Programs. Last week, at our Affiliated Minister’s request, I started writing a reflection of what’s helping my (liberal, heartbroken) soul after the election of Ivanka’s Dad to the highest office in the land. I wrote more & wrapped it up yesterday for the UUWF blog “Leaping From Our Spheres.” An excerpt is below, and you can see the whole entry here on the UUWF website.

Today, I was listening to Questlove Supreme (on Pandora, for those of you who are not Amir, or familiar with his new radio-style show) with Ray Parker Jr. and it dawned on me how much better my life is because of the music you make and the work you do.

I first heard of the Roots when I was at Lollapalooza (’95ish?) in Dallas and my friend wanted to check y’all out on the second stage. It was the very early days of my hip hop love affair and I realized I’d seen y’all earlier that year opening for the Beastie Boys. I remember just about losing my mind when Rahzel really opened it up on us. Over the years, I ended up following your work more and more closely. I’ve seen the Roots crew live more times than any other national act, and I used to go see a lot of bands. I remember when y’all filled the gap for Wu-Tang when they got kicked off of a tour with Rage Against the Machine. I was excited that it was gonna be y’all if it wasn’t going to be the Wu but man, oh man, the crowd that night really wanted the Clan and they were practically mean to you from the floor.

But I digress. Last year I was at a bar in my old neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was a quiet night at a small, friendly place with great music playing. “You Got Me” came on and everybody in the place was singing.** I was up at the bar getting another round and a guy who had been up there on his own was also singing. I asked him, “Could you ever have imagined, when this song came out, that the Roots would end up being the house band on the Tonight Show?”

When I heard Fallon got the big gig, my first question was “are the Roots going too?!?!” It was wild enough to me that you’d been the first hip hop group on any nighttime talk show, and of course Jimmy didn’t leave y’all behind. Obviously, y’all would be on, because the Roots are hands-down one of the most talented groups of people in the music business. I love the theme music for the show. It’s totally you, but also totally friendly for the wide audience.

You, Amir, keep yourself so crazy busy, but you seem to love it. I feel like you are enjoying the ride as much as possible while it goes on. I hope you’re taking good care of yourself among all the different projects you do, in addition to a full-time job on TV. Because I want to keep up with your work for a long, long time.

*And I’m a little embarrassed to say that I never once made it out to Bowl Train, only a 10 minute cab ride from my home.

**The album that “You Got Me” is on is Things Fall Apart and came out about a semester after I read the namesake novel by Chinua Achebe in college English class. I was so proud to be hip to that reference.